couper

What it means

1. UKobsoleteA dealer in horses or other livestock.

   John Henderson, a cow couper in Swinton, Berwickshire, towards the close of the last century, was very fond of a dram.

   1896, Proverbs, Proverbial Expressions, and Popular Rhymes of Scotland, page 421

   1 more example

   I think the Yorkshire story of the farmer who sold his old horse to a couper at a fair, then got very drunk on his good bargain, and bought him back at the end of the day with painted legs and filed teeth as a young horse, might have a kindred story among Daffodil-bulb buyers.

   1893, Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society of London, page 95

In a sentence

I think the Yorkshire story of the farmer who sold his old horse to a couper at a fair, then got very drunk on his good bargain, and bought him back at the end of the day with painted legs and filed teeth as a young horse, might have a kindred story among Daffodil-bulb buyers.

1893, Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society of London, page 95

Where it comes from

From coup (“to exchange, barter”) + -er.